RP: NSS Inquiry [Post Mission-Two] Debriefing : Blink of an Eye Briefing

Polup's Surface
Forest

"Hey, as long we don't hit them head on, we should be good. I don't want to captured again." Alec chimed in from the rear of the formation. He wasn't a tactical planning person, or the leader, but he spoke up anyways. "The forest seems like the best idea though. We just gotta watch our spacing maybe we can mask our noise with the factory."

Polup's Surface
Forest

Philip glanced at the diagram, mulling it over. 'We're here for intel, like Linda said, so we want to get in without them noticing our existence.' he thought out loud, muttering to him self, 'and as Alec said, the forest would keep us concealed, so as long as we don't make too much noise getting in we'd be best to go that way.' He raised his hand and called out, 'I'm with Alec and Adam, I think the forest is the best bet'. He quickly pulled his hand back and went back to looking at the diagram, hoping no one would actually listen to him.

Polup Atmosphere
Shuttle Ride

The alien explained that she was basically repaying a debt, as Jared saw it. Then she had a burst of zeal, which Jared kinda liked. "The names Jared, stick with me, we will do allright." He smiled at her. The alien was growing on him.

Polup's Surface
Forest

They finally touched down, and while everyone was checking out the differnet approaches, Jared had pulled out a rifle and moved into a overwatch position, just in case someone had noticed the shuttles descent or walked up on them at the wrong moment. While the others debated, he rememberd that the forest path had some hills. "If we take the unseen path, get me some height, I can thin out nay guards before we go in." He contribuited.

Polup's Surface
Forest

Vizil rose her hand and spoke with vigor "That's sounds like a good ass plan! You guys can go through the forest I can follow Jared to the hill so he isn't alone! I heard that snipers work in pairs after all!" She pointed to the path towards the hills erratically, which much like the forest in front of them, was densely covered in indigenous flora, "Shit, I can guide him through and past everything!". The path laid out in front of her was littered with barely visible head-sized holes, but other than was quite clear of any obstacle besides the shrubbery.

Then the forest shook once more as the factory worked with a sundering BANG! causing Vizil to recoil at the end of her plea. The sounds was powerful enough to send small vibrations all around, and forced the bushes to shake a tiny bit. Then another small explosion followed up from the mountains soon after, almost completely unrelated to the factory's hymn. However this was far more gentle, barely audible, almost like it an echo.

Raising an arm, Glynn turned to Linda and outstretched his other hand toward Philip, "Sergeant, I have to share my agreement with Philip's statement. I would also like to point out that what Alec says has some merit. It appears that while the factory is continuously making a lot of noise, there seems to be a massive spike about every two minutes. It could be possible to use that spike to mask the sounds of our own explosions if timed correctly."

All of a sudden, the familiar sound of an Elefirn weapon rattled from the direction of the factory, yet still from a far off distance.

Adam was moving from foot to foot as the group was in their huddle. It was obvious they all agreed on their course, heck he even agreed that the marksman should get that position he had suggested. He did not like however that their "escort" was volunteering to go with him. Adam hated the thought of this deserter just standing off to the side and possibly going back on it's word.

"Yo, forget this talking, send the sniper to his position but bring the antlers. Easier to keep tabs on it that way, in case it plans to flip sides yet again. Either way, let's go, the more we sit around picking our asses the more chance we have of being caught. So, man up nubs and let's go," Adam said with his usual scowl.

Linda gave a nod to the group and once the explosive sounds stopped she chuckled. "You guys are right. We'll take the forest, Private Barett, you're on over watch, make sure you're quiet. Vizil, watch him and look out for patrols. Barett, watch her too." She then gestured for everyone to follow as she began to move through the forest.

Her voice next came through teh radio line, and not outside of her armor "There will likely be patrols, if you can avoid it, don't use your fire arms. We're on radios only for now as well, cut external mics."

In the little time Jared had with he alien, he had come to like her. Jared just glared at the man who demanded they "bring the antlers". He didnt like the way the man had talked. Luckily, someone who seemed in charge finally made a decision.

Jared simply nodded at the agent, as she gave the ordered, and then turned on his heel and walked off towards the hill. He motioned for Vizil to follow him, and took a crouched, low profile stance as he moved through the area. "Keep low, keep your head on a swivel. Keep silent" And then the order for radio silence came, and he cut his external mic.

He slung the rifle back on to his back, and pulled out his pistol, and readied it, just in case he needed it as they walked through.

Polup's Surface
Forest

Vizil smiled brightly before making a rough salute towards Linda, "Yosh! Rodger Dodger cap'n!", she giggled childishly as she took a step away to point at Adam with smugness written all over her three-eyed face.

"You heard her guy? I'm going mah own fucking way!" She stuck out her tongue at Adam as she merrily trotted uphill "Let's get going, Jer-red! Look out for the holes tho, they might have missed a few mines!"

She waited a bit to make sure Jared was following behind before she started to seriously take the lead, and leaving the rest of the strike team behind before they moved on.


Polup's Surface
Forest Path

Continuing on their decided course, it was not long for the group to begin witnessing a large amount of potholes that sprang up on their path as well, artificial formations that were blatantly obvious in the wild.

As they marched beside each other, Glynn took quick glances at Phillip and Adam before they heard his voice, "It seems that the Alien was not incorrect. These holes do seem to come from recently dug up mines, yet I do not understand, why would the aliens place the mines only to remove them later?" He quietly asked.

Appearances of explosive residue and blasted tree's became more apparent, and quickly turned into an environmental carnage that became more frequent the more progress the group made towards the industrial compound. The noise from the facility too, became increasingly more daunting as well. If it weren't for the team's helmets nullifying out the noise, there could be serious ear damage. Fortunately for them, they could still communicate past the noise, and were easily able to mask the sounds they made under the factory's racket, allowing them to sneaking easier within the forest.

Then something blasted through the wilderness, an although it was not audible, it didn't prevent the strike team from observing a violent volley of Elefirn fire steer far over their heads, nor from seeing a clearing with three Elefirn soldiers wailing in panic where the shots originated. It was also near impossible to miss the corpse of an additional Elefirn soldier that once stood in front of what seemed to be an ill-maintained turret. The enemy, being too focused on themselves, neglected to notice the rest of Inquiry.

Polup's Surface
Sniper's Nest

In a similar fashion, the path up the hill was plagued with excavated explosives, but only rarely did it seem like any were detonated when they were removed. When there were signs of detonation, there would be the occasional remains of an Elefirn soldier, or of their thin power armor. Vizil herself however seemed unaffected by this, and only acknowledged any remnants by skipping over them while she hummed a strange tune until she was interrupted by the facility's eruption, in which she flinched. She quickly regained her composure within a matter of small moments.

Hidden among the dense shrubbery of the forest, the pair had eventually found themselves overlooking a part of the facility from a side, as well as having a clear vision of the main road. While the team was not visible from Jared's perspective, he was instead quickly able to count three Elefirn guards patrolling along a relatively flat roof top. While the facility unfortunately bore no windows to see into the facility, there was a dock on the ground floor where a total of eight soldiers worked to load and unload two ground transports with metal cubes. Yet while many industrial vehicles and lifts were strewn about the dock and deactivated, the Elefirn soldiers hoisted these cubes manually with assistance from their power armor.

While a sudden blast of the Elefirn turret in the forest was visible exiting the canopy of the forest, it was impossible to see any of the figures involved. The Elefirn stationed on the rooftop of the facility seemed woefully ignorant of such activity, despite actively peering at the direction in which the fire came from.

Polup's Surface
Forest Path

Alec had been keeping low as the group moved up through the forest but had hit the deck when something fly up and over the group. "The hell was that? Did our forward team get iced or did the cats rain down again?" He brought his weapon up and scanned sighted in one of the Elferin, waiitng for orders on what to do next. "What's the plan here?"

Polup's Surface
Sniper's Nest

Jared and the alien had reached the summit of the hill with little excitement. He went prone and pulled out his rifle. spottng the enemy targets down below. He pulled a set of spotter binoculars out of his pack and handed them to his alien companion.

"Here, keep a lookout." He said.

He heard the booming of a turret, but he tried to ignore it, he needed to concentrate on the task at hand.

He keyed his internal Mic. "I reached the summit. I count 3 guards on the roof, 8 on a dock unloading transports. No windows to see inside the facility."
He did some internal math. "I might be able to take out the 3 roof guards fast enough to not alert the other 8, but that is a might" He stressed. "Awaiting green light"

Forest Path

Linda waited until the groups had seperated a bit before she spoke on a closed line to Jared only. "Keep an eye on Vizil, if she tries anything you will have to put her down, this mission can't fail." She did not wait for a reply to her words before she switched back to the squad channel.

Before she gave any orders she carefully surveyed the situation and smiled behind her helmet 'things would be easier than she expected for the start. "It looks like we've got some support, carefully take out the guards on the roof. They'll probably think it's whatever is above. We'll head to teh docks and see what is there before heading into the facility."

Polup's Surface
Sniper's Nest

Jared was getting the idea that, while he had grown attached to the alien that had come with him, she was still an alien. No one else trusted the alien, and that made Jared wonder what happened before. He hadnt been on any of the past missions so he hadnt had experiences with the aliens, but apparently the others did not trust any of them.

He took a moment to key back a simple word to the agent. "Understood." Marking both his understanding of the private message and the other orders. He took a couple of seconds to watch the roof guards. They patrolled back and forth, and there were moments where one would pass far enough from the others that he could take them out. He mapped out their routine, and sighted each one. He turned to look at vizil as if to say Lets do this.

He took a deep breath, tracked one as it moved away from the group, carefully breathed out and pulled the trigger. After that one went down, he would quickly move the scope to the next guard and fire, and then the third and fire. Hopefully all three shots would find the target and no one would be the wiser.

Forest Path

Mark took cover behind a tree and trained his sights on the rooftop guards ready to mop up anything the sniper didn't manage to put down. "Here I was expecting the party to not start for a bit longer." He muttered to no one in particular.

Forest Path
Philip dove behind a tree after the shots went off. 'God Damn it!' he yelled. He pulled out his rifle and stood up behind the tree, peeking his head around trying to sight any guards that might pose a threat to him at that moment.

Polup's Surface
Sniper's Nest

After quickly identifying the Elefirn's mundane patrol on the roof, it was an easy pair of shots as the Elefirn patrol mostly stayed still, and with Vizil behind him with a backup shot there was little chance of them all surviving. True enough, it took two well placed shots to completely sunder two of the unsuspecting patrols, yet it was the third one who had become so skittish at the edge of the rooftop who had clumsly fallen of the building on her own accord. Needless to say a third shot wasn't necessary from Jared, yet that didn't stop Vizil from wildly firing at the clumsy enemy, to inevitably miss her target and strike randomly at the forest.

Though Vizil couldn't contain a tiny giggle as she both watched the enemy fall to her demise whilst feeling the true power of a Nepleslian rifle.

Fortunately the eight laborers on the docks remained unawares to the violence that was occurring above them, diligently performing their laborious task.

Forest Path

From the other side of the facility, Mark struggled to see the three patrolling Elefirn, and their sudden death as two of them dropped like flies. Yet when it came to the third one that fell off, Mark had already lined up his sights prematurely, and with ease fired a quick burst of shots before the lone Elefirn crashed into the dirt behind the turret and the three Elefirn soldiers. After quickly noticing a fresh coat of Alien blood plastered on the side of the facility's walls, Mark confirmed the kill in the back of his mind. After all, a couple of shots and a fall from that height would do Mark a lot of damage, and it would be impossible for the common Elefirn soldier to survive all of that.

Stationed not too far from Mark, Alec and Phillip peered at the turret crew from their position, and witnessed the three living Elefirn soldiers circle around their self-decimated sister. In a flustered panic, the aliens gathered their torn ally before dragging her remains towards the front of the facility as quickly as possible. Yet one lagged behind to take a deep breath at the direction of Mark's fire for a brief moment, before the shuffling of her kin and the ruckus of industry called her back to the emergency at hand.

After they enemy began to move a safe distance from the team, Glynn closely followed Linda as she crept behind the retreating Elefrin group. There was no doubt that the turret crew was moving towards the docks. Eventually Linda came across the edge of the facility in which she was able to peer from a corner into the docks and witness the workers there, and that fact that they were nearly finished with the unloading of their crates. Yet they seemed relatively mellow despite the fact that one of their kind was recently dragged past them dead, as the small streaks of blood on the ground would indicate. Linda could also pinpoint Jared's position, and he in turn could see the rest of the strike team start to appear from the dense shrubbery the moment the Elefirn dragged their dead comrade through the dock gates.

Forest Path

Things unfolded, but not exactly as Linda had expected, she had hoped that no one would fall off the roof so they could just sneak past the turret. But the turret guard still relocated themselves in the end so it worked out. She was able to see them all at the docks however and smirked behind her helmet as she readied her rifle and spoke over the comm line "Quickly take them all out, make it neat and fast."

After finishing her message she fired down onthose who dragged the body, aming for the leader and trying to put three rounds in their back before moving to the next.. Since htey were heading away she wanted to get them before they reported.

It hadnt gone the way hat Jared had wanted, but he wouldn't call it a failure. The three roving guards were down, one with the help of the alien beside him. He cocked a grin and looked at her,

"We will have to teach you some discipline, but I like the enthusiasm."

He got the order to take the rest out, and lined up the sights.

"Quick Lesson. Line up your sights, take a deep breath, calm yourself, and then on the exhale, pull the trigger. Think you can help me out."

He turned back to his scope, and demonstrated on the first of the remaining group, as he fired on them.

Forest Path

With the literal fall of the enemy patrol, Alec let out a sigh of relief. That's one fight easily disposed of, now for the next one. He moved up towards the facility with the others, keeping low to any brush he could use for cover. Once the the group dragging their fallen comrade came into view, Alec waited for the sound of the factory to roar again before firing off a short burst of his own.

At Linda's command Adam began moving aggressively forward toward the group dragging the body. The squads shots would work well in cutting down the small grouping of enemies but it only took one wounded to call in for assistance. He used the Raider's enhanced speed and small bursts from the jets to help propel himself toward the enemies. He tried to stay off to the side so as not to interfere with shots.

As he made one of his last bounds he drew his machete and prepared to jump amongst them to hack down any potential survivors.

Factory Unloading Dock

Upon Linda's command, the sounds of immediate gunfire were drowned out by the factory's roar, as Alec had hoped. His burst of shots followed the Elefirn workers, sending a couple of them down to the ground, and the rest skittish as they dropped their work and attempted to hide behind cover. Yet one round from Alec managed to find it's path astray and struck one of the metallic crates one of the Elefirn carried. This sent several sparks flying, and the crate in question spinning uncontrollably on itself and sliding everywhere on the dock ground before eventually slowing down and stopping completely. Adam's gun however, found itself staring down on the turret team and fired on the helpless team of three. Due to their close proximity, all of the Elefirn fell like dominoes with the initial burst, leaving the Elefirn bodies piling atop of each other. Glynn fired his weapon next to according to both Linda's lead and command, and for a moment contemplated the use of his grenade launcher before shooting down that idea and fired at the enemy like Mark and Phillip, ensuring that both the Elefirn soldiers and workers were on the ground, and motionless.

By then, Adam was the first one to swerve past the Elefirn position and discover that the few aliens who managed to take cover were already dead, most likely due to the sniper they had positioned a distance away. Yet from the pile of corpses produced for the turret team, Adam spotted a single Elefirn body unnaturally twitching underneath the weight of the bodies. On closer inspection, it was obvious that although she was in great pain, she attempted to play dead. With a quick thrust, Adam's power armor bore through the pile of bodies, causing the last surviving Elefirn to open her eyes in a fit of pain, and stared into Adam's eyes with a look of shock. Normally, Adam felt nothing in times like these, yet by looking in the Alien's eyes, Adam felt slightly dazed. Within a few seconds, that strange effect wore off, and Adam could see that one of the dock doors was heavily dented, and a small peep hole was visible.

Linda observed that the area was clear of the enemy presence, and concluded that the engagement was over, if one could even call it that. The fresh Elefirn blood that glistened against the pavement of the dock floor, and the corpses from which the blood poured from, would indicate that this engagement could more aptly be described as a massacre. And as she lead the team closer, it became evident to her and the rest of the team that all of the Elefirn, besides the captain of the turret crew, had no weapons on them. The control panel for the docks laid conveniently besides the outer wall of the dock.

Sniper's Nest

From the other side of the engagement, Jared had a perfect view of all of the Elefirn who managed to find cover behind the neatly stacked metal crates. Several easy shots soon found themselves inside the bodies of the Elefirn who so politely opened themselves up to him. Meanwhile, Vizil followed the sight of his barrel, and he could hear her heavily breathing between shots "LineupdeepbreathLineupdeepbreathcalmdown".

Once the firefight concluded, Jared found Vizil proudly nodding to herself, "Yeah, no. I think I got this shit dow-" she interrupted herself, and turned towards the main road, away from the factory. Following her gaze, Jared noticed what drew her attention. A large industrial transport vehicle was coming down the main road at a high speed despite the seemingly large load it carried.